


Brilliant the Weaving

by HSavinien



Series: The Oldest Ones [2]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Historical, POV Lykon (The Old Guard), Podfic Available, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:12:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26290168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HSavinien/pseuds/HSavinien
Summary: Lykon is young and the world is newly made.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Lykon, Quynh | Noriko & Lykon
Series: The Oldest Ones [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1910206
Comments: 17
Kudos: 69





	Brilliant the Weaving

Lykon is young. He has lived a dozen lifetimes more than his mother, his father, his brothers’ and sisters’ sons, and the cloak they sent with him on his journey has disintegrated beyond the memory of anyone but him, but he still feels like he is born into life every day. The sun is made anew, the air around him has never before breathed, and he is newly created, a new weft thread laid in the tapestry of his story. He leaves offerings at the shrine of every god he passes in thanks, for what hero of legend could boast this blessing?

Andromache and Quỳnh, likewise god-touched, welcome him with joy when they meet in Judea after years of dreaming each other. They claim him as their family and they learn his ways as he learns theirs. Andromache is older than both of them, and disagrees with Lykon on many things, from the best method of skinning a gazelle to the proper spices for brewing, but she only laughs when he does it his way and grins at her all the while. (She offers no criticism when he speaks of cloth.) 

He sides with Quỳnh against her when they fight each other, for together they would crush him. Andromache is a whirlwind, Quỳnh a whipping flame. Despite their strength, he and Quỳnh can only barely overcome her and when it is Quỳnh and Andromache together, he cannot but believe they could defeat an army. Quỳnh laughs and assures him that they have. Andromache is old, though her strength seems unflinching. She dies the same as they do, returns the same as they. Quỳnh teases her whenever Andromache revives slowly, telling her that she is getting creaky and Quỳnh will bring her a basin of hot water for her feet and calls smiling for Lykon to bring linen to bind her hair into an old woman’s braids.

They three are glorious together in battle and honored by Alexandros - a king crowned by different gods - even younger than Lykon and so hungry. Lykon tires of him. No man needs to swallow the world, no matter which gods he claims as parents and how beautiful he is. No man needs three heroes when his army could blanket the highland. He suggests they leave Alexandros to his conquering. Quỳnh agrees. Andromache shrugs and nods, and they travel north.

Lykon is not the skilled weaver his parents were, but he knows the value of a change in texture, pattern, and color. To make his life like a shawl fit for a king, he must explore all the newness of the world that he has not yet seen. Andromache is a smith, sometimes, making and remaking the bronze of her axe, his spear, Quỳnh’s arrows. A smith must reuse metal, it is valuable and hardy and difficult to find. Metal has its beauty and its constancy. But thread, thread is a story. When they are at rest, he spins. When they are in motion, he lives.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Brilliant the Weaving](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26791969) by [greedy_dancer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/greedy_dancer/pseuds/greedy_dancer)




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